Hungary, Budapest-based fashion designer Laura Papp, owner of the laurapapp brand, has designed a unique collection of 3D printed concept shoes. The ‘HEEL2’ designs, which consist of a set of moving triangular panels, transform themselves from heels to flats with a short series of slides or twists, depending on the model.

Papp, a graduate of the Mology-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, started her own clothing brand after a stint working with United Nude in China. The laurapapp brand specializes in accessories, bags and shoes, and has already featured some ‘pop-up’ shoe designs, each offering portability and flexibility to the wearer. The designer’s latest creations also demonstrate a hybrid element, being able to transform between 11cm high heels and flats. This flexibility makes the embryonic shoes useful for those occasions when a dressed-up look is required, but when a long walk home beckons at closing time.

The collection of 3D printed concept shoes consists of four unique designs, all of which can transform from heels to flats with a quick movement. Since Papp only used 3D printed triangular panels to make the shoes, she was limited in her design possibilities. Despite their near-uniformity in terms of function and appearance, each design features a unique transforming mechanism. Each shoe uses a magnetic closing mechanism, but moves in its own distinctive way. “In the first case, the arms turn inside out along an axis and the heel components close on each other,” the designer told Concept Kicks. “In the second shoe’s case, a trapeze-shaped arm supports the heel. In the third and fourth shoe, the triangle flaps provide the stability in the heel, which are popped in the groove on the sole so this way they won’t move at all.”

Papp’s designs demonstrate how 3D printing can be used to produce prototypes in many different fields besides the usual suspects. We often hear how 3D printing technology is used by car manufacturers and medical device firms, but use of the technology to explore potential fashion designs is still a relatively new phenomenon.

Although Papp’s 3D printed concept shoes are clearly in their developmental stage, heel wearers everywhere will be head over heels about the possibility of a practical alternative to the fixed heel. If the concept shoes are ever produced, their wearers will have 3D printing to thank for getting the ball rolling.